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A great Christmas thus far: soaking turkey's (Nigella's eccentric but not so effiective recipe) and baking [wedding] cakes, which apparently needs to be done months in advance to allow time for the cake to mature and alcohol to be 'injected' :-)
As ever, lots of great Christmas presents especially a Howies jumper from Zo and a Stevie G DVD from the in-laws.
Really enjoying reading Spirituality Revolution. Tacey makes some great observations about the rise of spirituality and the fall of 'religion' in the West which have given food for thought especially in light of today's Guardian which carries two stories about Christianity. The first entitled religion doing more harm than good, the second focusing on the growth of some church groups particularly Polish churches and Pentecostal congregations in London- the Beeb also reported earlier this week that Pentecostalism in the UK has outgrown Methodism.
One point which Tacey makes in his book is that there should be a decline in religion in the West. We should expect less people to go to church because church doesn't work for what Tacey calls 'youth spirituality'. Saying that, the growth of Pentecostalism is in some respects more worrying than the decline of traditional churches: while it may work for what is a very small percentage of the population, this model of spirituality alienates the majority of us and gives false hope to the rest of the church that if they shout/sing louder, revival is just round the corner and they can keep ignoring the metaphysical questions that young people are asking.
I realised the other day that I haven't updated my TypeLists (ie what I'm reading and listening to) in too long and consequently it looks like it's taken me five months to read Stevie G's autobiography. I can assure you that this is not true. Since completing that most demanding of biographies I've not read all that much but have recently enjoyed reading 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian' (which is thankfully the title of the novel not a description of it's contents).
I've also just started The Spirituality Revolution (thanks for the book loan steve!), which is demanding and much more psychoanylitical than I would normally choose but nevertheless enjoyable. One point that stood out from today's reading, which took place on the 13:57 from Newcastle to King's Cross, was Tacey's interpretation of 'pick and mix' spirituality. Tacey highlights the correlation between this selection process and the learning process of educated people (observe, hypothesize, test, conclude) and writes;
"What is berated by religious conservatives as 'pick and mix' could be the logical necessary application of the scientific method to our spiritual experiences. Rather than seeing this behaviour as disloyal or faithlessness, it could be reconfigured through the lens of science in a radically different way; as a sign that people are taking their spiritual lives seriously, and applying the best criteria they know to the lived experience of the spiritual life. "
Tacey re-reads the church's criticisms of 'youth spirituality' (his term) in this way throughout the book and it's genius! If you like the sounds of it I've just discovered that you can read the intro to the book on Amazon here.
Following Jonny's recent post about his visit to the north-east I figure it's just about time to post about what is happening up here. I moved up here just over twelve months ago, Zo had already been up here just over a year.
Although she told me there was nothing emerging and little culturally relevant about church up here, I was confident that with the aid of my trusty car Zo and I would find something; this is newcastle, surely there is something on the emerging scale going on?
A year on it's clear that although there are plenty of church plants up here, none of them break from the evangelical tradition and the rich north-east tradition of Celtic Christianity seems to be lost under a sea of charismatic worship. After complaining about this for too long, recently Zo and I have started to converse with a few other disenfranchised (read fed up) believers. We're not quite sure where it's going to go, but we're going to keep talking (and probably eating!) and we'll see what happens.
Prayers and wisdom appreciated.
This evening has involved huddling up against the fire watching The Trouble With Atheism on Channel 4. For those that watched Root of All Evil? with Richard Dawkins on Channel 4 earlier this year, this is exactly the opposite: a presentation on the existence of God from a theistic perspective.
The programme is interesting, especially Rod Liddle's critique of atheism, which he sees as something that is as religious as any theistic religion. The difficulty with the programme, as with Dawkins', is that it is so one sided. Liddle interviews Dawkins or other non-believers and then deconstructs their argument not to their face but to a believer (such as Alistair McGrath) or worse as the narrator. Channel 4 seem to be doing a lot of documentaries like this and I'm not a fan. It breeds frustration amongst those of the opposing viewpoint and ignorance amongst supporters.
Case in point: Liddle is just tracing a line between Darwin and Hitler (Darwin removed the spirituality from human kind and so extermination becomes much easier).
Oxfam's campaign to get Starbuck's trading more fairly is hitting the street. In addition to faxing Starbucks CEO in the states, now they are asking supporters to print this postcard and hand it in over the counter.
Oxfam supporters out there may also want to make note of 118918, a new directory enquiries service which costs the caller no more but 9p goes to Oxfam!
Just stumbled over this picture: think Banksy may be behind it.
Last night Zo and I went to talk to some fellow travellers (in the spiritual sense not the literal gypsy sense) about the possibility of establishing a Spirited Exchanges group in the north-east. We left leaving happy about how things had gone and are looking forward to our first meeting proper next month. Somewhere in Newcastle: details to follow!
I had two 'moments' throughout the evening;
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